This is true, I remember it being recalled the day it was initially released. Had to be reissued about six weeks later.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who use the word "spastic" or more commonly "spaz" here in the UK use it as an insult aimed at the mentally retarded or otherwise disabled. It's not used quite as often as "retard" - another popular playground insult - but you do still get quite a lot of it.

In the US, I know neither retarded nor spastic are in the least bit offensive, but they are in the UK, and sadly it's mainly down to playground culture.

@wingo84
Yeah i understand that it's just that it's not used in that context within the game.
It'd be like if a game got banned because a character called another character fruity because it could mean something similar to "gay". but in the context of the game it just means eccentric(in other words just odd in general)

I knew this, I mentioned it in an article about Mario facts on my site a while ago.

And yes, as someone from the UK, it's a pretty offensive word over here. In fact, I'm kind of surprised Nintendo of Europe even missed it at first, the word is barely ever used for any other meaning in this country. Heck, I doubt most people have even heard it in general.

HammerGalladeBro wrote:
And by the way, wasn't Super Paper Mario recalled in the UK for the same reason, but for a different word? I can't remember which word was, though.

No, that was due to glitch that froze the game.

In any case, as a guy from the UK myself, I have to be honest, I'd never heard of this being an issue until a couple of years back. Hell, in my primary school days, 'spaz' used to be the go-to word to jokingly call someone stupid, and I don't recall any teachers ever complaining about it. I guess times have just changed since then?

Apparently this issue caused problems with the release of S.P.A.Z. (Space Pirates and Zombies) as well. Funny how there can be such significant differences even when the cultures involved have the same language and heritage.

Cipher DX wrote:This is true, I remember it being recalled the day it was initially released. Had to be reissued about six weeks later.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people who use the word "spastic" or more commonly "spaz" here in the UK use it as an insult aimed at the mentally retarded or otherwise disabled. It's not used quite as often as "retard" - another popular playground insult - but you do still get quite a lot of it.

In the US, I know neither retarded nor spastic are in the least bit offensive, but they are in the UK, and sadly it's mainly down to playground culture.

Calling someone a retard in the U.S. is offending them, but calling them a spaz is a bit more of a tease-y thing, kind of like calling them clumsy.

Happened again in 2011 with Transformers Power Core Combiner line. His name had to be changed from Spastic to Over-Run stickers to cover the name on the box. And In another Transformers bio for Strafe, spastic was removed with twitchy.

Yeah Spastic is pretty offensive, it also seems like a very 80's word, kinda like puff. Something you'd hear in Life on Mars and not something you're really likely to hear anywhere else. I'm more comfortable using the word retard than spastic, when describing someone as stupid. I also wasn't aware there was another meaning. I just thought it was a derogatory term for disabled people.

@TheDreamingHawk
Yeah, but over here the word "spastic" is really only used as a taboo word. So no one would even take the context into consideration, it's just offensive.

Although I wouldn't agree with DYKG that it's highly offensive. Perhaps it is to those who know people that are mentally ill, but plenty of people use it as a throwaway insult. It's about as offensive as crap is to most.

I remember this when it happened. Used to lurk in the GameFAQs forums when I was that young and everyone used spastic to call Nintendo fans of any form to bypass the censorship for a couple months, on top of dooming Nintendo's end, as always.